430L stainless steel powder is used as the raw materials to prepare steel foams by powder metallurgy, and then the steel foam core is combined with the thin-walled metal tubes by physical bonding. The quasi-static axial compression experiments were performed on the empty tubes and the metal foam-filled tubes respectively. The compression deformation mode, mechanical properties and energy absorption perfor-mance of the empty and filled tubes were compared and analyzed. The results show that during the compression deformation process, both the empty aluminum tubes and the steel foam-filled aluminum tubes present axisymmetric deformation mode, and while the empty steel tubes present non-axisymmetric deformation mode, the steel foam-filled steel tubes present mixed deformation mode. The compressive strength of steel foam-filled aluminum tubes is about 56.09 MPa, which is 1.69 times higher than aluminum foam-filled aluminum tubes; the compressive strength of steel foam-filled steel tubes is as high as 116.03 MPa, which is 1.05 times higher than aluminum foam-filled steel tubes. When the strain is 40%, the energy absorption value per unit volume of the steel foam-filled aluminum tubes is 27.93 MJ/m3, which is 2.91 times that of the aluminum foam-filled aluminum tubes, and the energy absorption value per unit volume of the steel foam-filled steel tubes is 35.98 MJ/m3, which is 1.15 times that of aluminum foam-filled steel tubes. When the wall thickness of the steel foam-filled aluminum tubes increases from 1 mm to 2 mm, the platform stress value of the steel foam-filled tubes increases by about 1.36 times. When the strain is 40%, the energy absorption per unit volume increases by about 1.26 times, and the number of deformation folds of the steel foam-filled tubes during the compression process decreases with the increase of the wall thickness. © 2021, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.
